61 Facts About Thomas Brassey

Thomas Brassey was an English civil engineering contractor and manufacturer of building materials who was responsible for building much of the world's railways in the 19th century.

Thomas Brassey built the structures associated with those railways, including docks, bridges, viaducts, stations, tunnels and drainage works.

Thomas Brassey built part of the London sewerage system, still in operation today, and was a major shareholder in Brunel's The Great Eastern, the only ship large enough at the time to lay the first transatlantic telegraph cable across the North Atlantic, in 1864.

Thomas Brassey was the eldest son of John Brassey, a prosperous farmer, and his wife Elizabeth, and member of a Brassey family that had been living at Manor Farm in Buerton, a small settlement in the parish of Aldford, 6 miles south of Chester, from at least 1663.

Thomas Brassey was educated at home until the age of 12, when he was sent to The King's School in Chester.

When his apprenticeship ended at the age of 21, Thomas Brassey was taken into partnership by Lawton, forming the firm of "Lawton and Thomas Brassey".

Many of the bricks needed for the growing city of Liverpool were supplied by the brickworks and Thomas Brassey devised new methods of transporting his materials, including a system similar to the modern method of palletting, and using a gravity train to take materials from the quarry to the port.

When Lawton died, Thomas Brassey became sole manager of the company and sole agent and representative for Francis Price.

Stephenson and Thomas Brassey visited a quarry in Storeton, a village near Birkenhead, following which Stephenson advised Thomas Brassey to become involved in building railways.

In 1835 Thomas Brassey submitted a tender for building the Penkridge Viaduct, further south on the same railway, between Stafford and Wolverhampton, together with 10 miles of track.

On completion of the Grand Junction Railway, Locke moved on to design part of the London and Southampton Railway and encouraged Thomas Brassey to submit a tender, which was accepted.

Thomas Brassey undertook work on the section of the railway between Basingstoke and Winchester, and on other parts of the line.

Thomas Brassey considered that the tenders submitted by French contractors were too expensive, and suggested that British contractors should be invited to tender.

In January 1846, during the building of the 58-mile long Rouen and Le Havre line, one of the few major structural disasters of Thomas Brassey's career occurred, the collapse of the Barentin Viaduct.

Thomas Brassey rebuilt the viaduct at his own expense, this time using lime of his own choice.

Thomas Brassey was involved in this expansion but was careful to choose his contracts and investors so that he could maintain his standards.

Also in 1845 Thomas Brassey received contracts for the Caledonian Railway which linked the railway at Carlisle with Glasgow and Edinburgh, covering a total distance of 125 miles and passing over Beattock Summit.

Thomas Brassey was the sole contractor for the line of 75.5 miles.

Thomas Brassey was assisted in solving the problem by one of his agents, Stephen Ballard.

Also in 1847 Thomas Brassey began to build the North Staffordshire Railway.

In Norway, with Sir Morton Peto and Edward Betts, Thomas Brassey built the Oslo to Bergen Railway of 56 miles which passes through inhospitable terrain and rises to nearly 6,000 feet.

The Dutch were relatively slow to start building railways but in 1852 with Locke as engineer, Thomas Brassey built the Dutch Rhenish Railway of 43 miles.

In 1852 Thomas Brassey took out the largest contract of his career, which was to build the Grand Trunk Railway of Canada.

Thomas Brassey worked in partnership with Peto, Betts and Sir William Jackson.

The main problem was the raising of the necessary finance and at one stage Thomas Brassey travelled to Canada to appeal personally for assistance.

Thomas Brassey played a part in helping the British forces to success in the Crimean War.

When news of the problem arrived in Britain, Thomas Brassey joined with Peto and Betts in offering to build a railway at cost to transport these necessary supplies.

However, despite setbacks, Thomas Brassey survived the crisis and drove ahead with the projects he already had in hand.

From 1867 Thomas Brassey's health was beginning to decline, but he continued to negotiate further contracts, including the Czernowicz and Suczawa Railway in the Austrian Empire.

Thomas Brassey's works were not limited to railways and associated structures.

Thomas Brassey built a number of drainage systems, and a waterworks at Calcutta.

In 1861 Thomas Brassey built part of the London sewerage system for Joseph Bazalgette.

Thomas Brassey worked with Bazalgette to build the Victoria Embankment on the north bank of the River Thames from Westminster Bridge to Blackfriars Bridge.

Thomas Brassey gave financial help to Brunel to build his ship Leviathan, which was later called Great Eastern and which in 1854 was six times larger than any other vessel in the world.

Thomas Brassey was a major shareholder in the ship and after Brunel's death, he, together with Gooch and Barber, bought the ship for the purpose of laying the first Transatlantic telegraph cable across the North Atlantic in 1864.

Thomas Brassey had other ideas which were ahead of his time.

Thomas Brassey tried to interest the governments of the United Kingdom and Europe in the idea of a tunnel under the English Channel but this came to nothing.

Thomas Brassey wanted to build a canal through the Isthmus of Darien but this idea similarly had no success.

Thomas Brassey paid his navvies and gangers a wage and provided food, clothing, shelter and, in some projects, a lending library.

Thomas Brassey had to be a man of great capability, working for a fee plus a percentage of the profits, with penalties for late finishing and inducements to complete the work early.

Thomas Brassey had considerable skill in choosing good men to work in this way and in delegating the work.

At the peak of his career, for well over 20 years, Thomas Brassey was employing on average some 80,000 people in many countries in four continents.

Thomas Brassey travelled with a personal valet and later had a cashier.

Thomas Brassey was given a number of honours to celebrate his achievements, including the French Legion of Honour, the Italian Order of Saints Maurice and Lazarus and the Austrian Iron Crown.

Thomas Brassey encouraged him to bid for the contract for Dutton Viaduct and, when that was unsuccessful, to apply for the next available contract.

Thomas Brassey' work led to frequent moves of home in their early years; from Birkenhead to Stafford, Kingston upon Thames, Winchester and then Fareham.

The Harrison children had been taught to speak French, while Thomas Brassey himself was unable to do so.

Thomas Brassey refused to learn French and Maria acted as interpreter for all his French undertakings.

In 1870 Thomas Brassey was told that he had cancer but he continued to visit his working sites.

In 1870 Thomas Brassey purchased Heythrop Park, a baroque house situated in an estate of 450 acres 15 miles northeast of Oxford as a wedding present for his third son, Albert.

On 8 December 1870 Thomas Brassey died from a brain haemorrhage in Victoria Hotel, St Leonards and was buried in the churchyard of St Laurence's Church, Catsfield, Sussex where a memorial stone has been erected.

Thomas Brassey had enormous drive, an ability to remain calm despite enormous pressures, and extreme skill in organisation.

Thomas Brassey was a man of honour who always kept his word and his promise.

Thomas Brassey had no interest in public honours and refused invitations to stand for Parliament.

Thomas Brassey's great-great-grandson considers that he was successful because he inspired people rather than drove them.

Walker, in his 1969 biography, tried to make an accurate assessment of Thomas Brassey using Helps and other sources.

Thomas Brassey found it difficult to discover anyone who had a bad word to say about him, either during his life or since.

Thomas Brassey expected a high standard of work from his employees; Cooke states that his "standards of quality were fastidious in the extreme".

Thomas Brassey was exceptionally hardworking, and had an excellent memory and ability to perform mental arithmetic.

Thomas Brassey was a good judge of men, which enabled him to select the best people to be his agents.

Thomas Brassey was scrupulously fair with his subcontractors and kind to his navvies, supporting them financially at their times of need.